Goodbye Metinic :(

I got to spend one last weekend on the beloved Metinic before the nesting season came to an end, and the researchers as well as all the gear would make their final trip to the mainland. Essentially I did the same things that I did the last time I went out, but with the other intern, Chelsea, and it ironically happened to be the last weekend there for the both of us. She was being switched to Petit Manan.

During one windy day there I walked out to the north point of the island and climb into the researcher-built Ledge Blind for an hour or so long blind stint. Sitting about 10 feet above the ground on the cold metal chair inside the tiny wooden blind I locked the door shut and opened two of the three wooden windows. Opening all three, or two on opposite sides of eachother would have revealed me to the birds. Since the terns abandoned their colony on Metinic, I would see them come and go overhead, scoping out the area. The longer I sat in the little blind, the more spiders revealed themselves to me. There are always a few clearly visible ones upon first climbing into the blind, but about a half hour into it, I noticed about 8 good sized spiders hanging out right next to my head and in front of my face. It gets a little weary because the wind blows them around, so it felt as if they could easily have swayed right onto my face!

I'm certainly not a fan of spiders, and before being so exposed to them this summer, I would stay as far away from them as possible. I wouldn't want to disturb them, for they usually would never want to disturb me. Because I do so many things up here that don't include time to work around spiders, I have really learned to completely ignore them. There is even this one spider I call Peaka that hangs out in my shower at the camper. It always sits high in a corner and remains there when I shower, so I decided to leave it be. One day I actually saved its life! It fell and landed on a ledge right where the water pounds off of. It didn't even resemble a spider anymore. I actually found it a little sad. Normally I would have just figured that I was not responsible for saving it, and I would just let it wash away down the drain. For some reason I could not let that happen to this spider! I shut the water off and climbed out, dripping water everywhere, dried off my hands, and balled up some toilet paper. I carefully picked it up with the toilet paper ball and placed it on the toilet to dry while I finished my shower. My relationship with spiders has definitely come a long way!

Anyways, our last night there, we watched our last Metinic sunset on a rock in the intertidal and later did some Storm Petrel work. We were unsuccessful in locating any new burrows because the birds were busy at work, so the only calls we were hearing in the area we needed to look were coming from above us. They were all airborne. The long and difficult tread through the tall grass and uneven terrain in the pitch dark was well worth it when I got to hold a Storm Petrel though. They are so precious! It happened to be right where we were walking, so we scooped it up and it made itself right at home in our hands. When I tried to let it go it wouldn't leave! It just laid right down and enjoyed the warmth of my hand. Eventually I finally got it to leave my hand and scurry across the grass to safety.

The next morning we took one last walk around the island and said our final goodbyes. The island is not accessible to the public, so it really was our final goodbyes.